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KOSSUTH OR AVASHINGTON? 



THE NEW DOCTRINE 

OF 



INTERYENTION, 

TRIED BY THE 

TEACHINaS OF WASHINGTON: 

AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED IN THE 



TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 

ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY EVENINGS, THE 23d AND 24th OF 
FEBRUARY, 1852. 



BY 

m^MBOARDMAN, D. D. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., 

SUCCESSORS TO GRIGG, ELLIOT AND CO. 

1852. 



3 ^ '* 




Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., 

in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



i'IIII.adki.i'mia: 

T. K. ANU 1'. li. L'ULLI.NS, I'lUNTEUS. 



^^ 



ADDRESS. 



In a discourse on the " True Mission of the United 
States in respect to the Nations and Governments 
OF Europe," delivered in this house, on the last 
Thanksgiving Day, there occurred the following pas- 
sage : — 

" Various indications show that a concerted effort 
is about to be made to break down the princij)le of 
non-intervention, which has hitherto been funda- 
mental to our foreign policy, and to involve us ac- 
tively in the conflicts of Europe. Under these 
circumstances, it becomes a grave question with every 
citizen : ' Is this plan, or the other which has been 
sketched, the true way to discharge our duty to the 
old world ? Are we to send fleets and armies there 
(for this is the English of it), or are we to take care 
OF THIS Union ?' In so far as this may be a legitimate 
topic for the pulpit, I could wish that my strength 
and your patience were equal to a brief discussion of 
it. I must, however, waive it with the citation of 
one or two of those solemn and monitory sentences 
which Washington devotes to the subject in his Fare- 
well Address." 



6 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

The sermon from which this paragraph is quoted, 
was preached nearly a fortnight before the arrival of 
the Humboldt in December. The course of events 
since that steamer handed the great Hungarian at 
Staten Island, is famiUar to all who hear me. If it 
had not been such as to verify in an alarming degree 
the prediction then hazarded, that a vigorous effort 
was about to be made to revolutionize our foreign 
policy, the present service would have been dispensed 
with. It is, indeed, with unfeigned reluctance, and 
only under a stringent sense of duty, that I now, in 
the altered circumstances of the country, revert to 
the subject. That the discussion of it in this place 
will encounter more or less prejudice, is a thing of 
course. The common feehng will be, that it is a 
subject which lies beyond the proper jurisdiction of 
the pulpit, and the less clergymen have to say about 
it officially, the better. I should so judge myself, if 
it were not for two very grave considerations. The 
first is, that the influence of " the clergy" has already, 
in a signal manner, been put forth in favor of the 
movement now in progress. Wherever the Hunga^ 
rian chief lias gone, the ministers of religion have 
l)een conspicuous in their attentions to him. Not 
only youthful preachers, who might be carried away 
by the ardor of their feeUngs, but men venerable alike 
for their years, their learning, and their piety, have 
vied with the civil authorities in doing him honor. 
This is not, perhaps, surprising. M. KossuTii came to 
us as the representative of an interesting people, whose 



OF INTERVENTION. 7 

wrongs had excited a sentiment of indignation in the 
breasts of all true American citizens. We must have 
forfeited all title to our own liberties, and to the respect 
of mankind, if we could have seen Russia pour her 
barbarous hordes down the Carpathians, and re-impose 
the Austrian yoke upon the Hungarians, just as they 
were exulting in their well-earned deliverance, with- 
out strong emotion. There was everything, too, in 
the personal character and history of our guest, to 
elicit sympathy. No idle spectator of his country's 
woes, he had vindicated her rights with surpassing 
eloquence in the senate, guided the helm in the tur- 
moil of her revolution, commanded her armies, shared 
in her disasters, and, hunted from her soil, secured a 
shelter from the scaffold only in a Turkish prison. 
Then, too, he stood before the nation as a Christian 
who, before whatever audience, proclaimed, with a 
frankness too rare in our own statesmen, his attach- 
ment to the Bible ; as a Confessor, who had nobly re- 
fused to sacrifice his faith to his personal safety; as a 
Protestant, the inflexible friend of rehgious liberty, and 
one of a gallant race which, after repeatedly rolling- 
back from Europe the devastating torrent of Moham- 
medanism, was now compelled to see its own ancient 
and beloved church made the football of Jesuit intol- 
erance and Austrian tyranny.* When with these 

* " Scarcely had Russia restored the house of Hapsburg, by putting 
its foot on the neck of Hungary, when the first act of that house was 
to spill noble blood by the hands of the hangman, and its second was 
to destroy the rights of the Protestant religion." [Kossuth's Speech in 



8 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

attributes you combine those rare oratorical powers 
which ehcit equal admiration from the most refined 
and the most uncultivated auditories, there can be no 
room for surprise that Kossuth should have received 
from the Protestant clergy the same cordial greeting 
which has been extended to him by all other profes- 
sions. 

But he visits us, it must be remembered, on a spe- 
cific errand. He comes, not as an emigrant, like 
Uijhazy and others of his friends, to seek a tranquil 
home here ; not simply as an exile, to escape from 
danger ; not mainly as a fallen leader, to ol^tain need- 
ful succors from the benevolent and the patriotic, for 
his suffering countrjnuen. He comes (so he has 
elected to come) on a political mission; as an ex- 
pounder of international law; to get our government 
to incorporate in its policy a certain principle he has 
invented for the relief of oppressed nationalities, the 
adoption of which would at once change our rela- 
tions with all the States of Christendom, and alter 
the whole tone and spirit of our confederation. It is 
not in this aspect that the clergy have regarded him. 
They have not, ordinarily, made this subject promi- 
nent in their complimentary addresses to him. But 
the moral effect has been to stamp their imprimatur 
upon his favorite project. His answers to them show 
that til is is tlie impression produced up(m his own 

London.) There is reason enough why all the sympathies of the 
Iioinish Iiicrarcliy in Kuropo and America shoiikl be on the side of 
Au.'itria. 



OF INTERVENTION. 9 

mind, and there are but too many proofs that the 
people at large thuik with him. There can be little 
doubt that the Protestant ministers of the States 
he has traversed, are set down by the country as en- 
dorsing the grand object of his visit, and that this 
conviction has contributed essentially to the tolerance 
it has met Avith among sober-minded people. Nor 
will it discredit this behef, that the religious press 
and the pulpit should have been vigorously employed 
both in lauding the man and defending his peculiar 
dogma. All this might be allowed to pass, if it were 
a question merely of to-day. It is not very probable 
that even the eloquence of Kossuth will bring about 
an abandonment of that prudent and advantageous 
policy which we have followed for three-quarters of a 
century. But if he fails, other foreigners may here- 
after tread in his steps. And whether they should or 
not, politicians of native growth will take the \drus — 
for everything here runs into party-politics — and this 
question will reappear in our domestic elections. In 
this view of the case, it would be extremely unfor- 
tunate, if the public men of the country should be left 
to suppose that the Protestant clergy, as a body, were 
friendly to the new doctrine of intervention. The 
consequences could not fail to l^e disastrous in a high 
degree. As one of that honorable profession, there- 
fore, I wish to unite with those of my brethren who, 
as pastors or editors, have already proclaimed their 
dissent from the new theory. Aware that the opin- 
ions of a single individual like myself can be of very 



10 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

little moment in any direction, I still feel constrained 
to put on record my earnest protest, both against this 
theory, and against the manner it is attempted to 
force it upon the country. I am very far from com- 
plaining of what so many of my fathers and brethren 
have done and are doing; but I must claim the same 
liberty they have exercised, and resist the scheme 
which they have \'irtually sanctioned. 

The other ground on which the introduction of 
this subject into the pulpit may be vindicated, is, that 
the real question now before the American people, is 
the question of Peace or Wae. The furor which 
gathers around the eloquent Magyar, and makes his 
convocations like a burning prairie, may hide the 
truth from some eyes ; but no one who has his reason 
in full play, can fail to see that War, with its ensan- 
guined horrors, is following in his train. If this be 
so, the right of the pulpit to take part in the discus- 
sion is not to be gainsaid. Patriotism, piety, hu- 
manity, forbid it to be silent. As individuals, we 
have the same stake in this question with our fellow- 
citizens; and as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace, 
we should incur the guilt of a flagrant disloyalty, 
could we see a course of measures in progress legiti- 
mately tending to bring down this great calamity 
upon the country, without remonstrating against 
them. 

If these views are assented to, there can be no dif- 
ference of opinion as to the fitness of the theme to the 
prc'sout occasion. Among the munificent gifts of Di- 



OF INTERVENTION. 11 

vine Providence to this Western hemisphere, the 
name of GEORGE WASHINGTON will be conspic- 
uous to the latest posterity. We owe our present 
position more, under God, to his instrumentality, 
than to that of any other individual. His character 
is part of our best earthly treasure : his teachings, 
one of our richest legacies. By a faithful adherence 
to his counsels, we have enjoyed an unexampled de- 
gree of prosperity. And there is no more suitable 
way in which we can manifest our reverence for his 
memory, and our gratitude to heaven for bestowing 
him upon us, than by repelling all attempts to per- 
vert his principles and to seduce our government 
from the wise policy he prescribed to it. Such at- 
tempts are now making with a boldness, an energy, 
and an apparent impression upon masses of the peo- 
ple, which are ominous of evil. They meet us in a 
form eminently adapted to excite our sympathies and 
disarm our opposition. A European nation, rising 
against its oppressors, virtually achieves its indepen- 
dence : a third power, interposing with an over- 
whelming military force, after shooting and gibbet- 
ing thousands of its best citizens, replaces its chains, 
and consigns it to a still more terrible bondage. The 
gifted leader of this injured people appears amongst 
us, and tells the tale of his country's wrongs with 
a pathos which penetrates the most stoical bosoms. 
The effect produced by his addresses might almost be 
compared to that which followed the appeal of Maria 
Theresa [A. D. 1741] when, a young and beautiful 



12 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

queen, clad in deep mourning, with the crown of St. 
Stephen on her head, and girt with his sword, and 
holding her infant son in her arms, she appeared be- 
fore the Hungarian Diet, and, after reciting the 
dangers which threatened her kingdom, threw her- 
self upon her faithful Palatines for protection. The 
Magyar chivalry were carried by storm. In an 
instant every sword leaped from its scabbard, and 
amidst the cry, "Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria 
Theresa!" they swore to assert her rights, and to shed 
the last drop of their blood in her defence. More 
than one popular assembly in the United States has 
been wrought up to a similar pitch of enthusiasm by 
the solemn and touching oratory of Kossuth. And 
so just is the cause of his country, and so rare the 
ability with which he advocates it, that it seems a 
very thankless office to resist his demands and warn 
the peoj)le against his seductions. But duty loses 
none of its sacredness by being unwelcome ; and we 
must beware how we put even Hungary before our 
own glorious Union, or exchange the visionary specu- 
lations of a stranger for the tried wisdom of Wash- 
ington. 

What is it, then, that is asked of us ? You shall 
hear in Kossuth's own words : — 

" There is an international law founded upon prin- 
ciples ; and one of those principles must be, that every 
country lias the right to dispose of its destinies itself, 
and that no foreign power can have the right to in- 
terfere with its domestic concerns. This principle 



OF INTERVENTION. ] 3 

has been recognized, and by Russia. But the princi- 
ple or law must be carried out. Who shall carry it 
out ? The executive power of the international law 
should be exercised only by a free nation, for no 
other nation can have the power. Therefore, I claim 
this aid from the United States. The great principle 
of international law is the right of every nation to 
dispose of itself, and the United States should declare 
their willingness to respect that law, and to make it 
respected by others." {Speech in BrooMyn.) 

" These are the great objects for which I seek the 
support of the United States, to check and not permit 
Russian interference in Hungary; because, so that 
Hungary may have an opportunity to organize her 
strength against Russian despotism and barbarity. 
This is the reason that I ask the United States to be- 
come the executive power to recognize the right of 
every nation to dispose of itself This is the only 
glory which is yet wanting to the list of your glorious 
stars. The people of the United States having suc- 
cessfully asserted their own independence and freedom, 
have scarcely any other calling than to become the 
assertors of freedom equally for other lands; and I 
confidently hope, that being your condition, that you 
will not deny me your generous support in carrying 
out that great principle of non-interference, and also 
of not allowing any interference in that new struggle 
of Hungary for freedom and independence, which is 
already felt in the air, and which is pointed out by the 



14 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

finger of God himself." [Address to the Militanj of 
New Yorh}j 

We are asl?:ed, then, to do two things. To declare 
it as a principle of international law, that no nation 
shall interfere in the domestic concerns of another na- 
tion, and to constitute ourselves the executive au- 
thority FOR ENFORCING THIS LAW all ovcr the globe. 
We are to " make this law respected by other nations." 
We are to "check and not 'permit Russian interference 
in Hungary." We are to regard the interference of 
one nation with the internal affairs of another as a 
legitimate cause of war, and, if nothing short will an- 
swer, we are to unsheath the sword to prevent it. 

It cannot be laid to the charge of the American 
government or people, that they have ever been indif- 
ferent to the progress of liberty in other lands. We 
have watched the great conflict with which Europe is 
perpetually agitated, between prerogative and popular 
rights, with intense solicitude. Wherever a nation 
has revolted against its taskmasters, we have cheered 
them by our sympathy, and instructed them by our 
example. We have not ceased to protest against the 
monstrous dogmas of absolutism, that the plenitude of 
authority and right is vested in the crown, that society 
derives all its franchises from the good-will' of the 
sovereign, and that the people have nothing to do with 
government but submit to its decrees, and gratefully 
accept such favors as may be conceded to them. Our 
abhorrence of these principles has been expressed, not 



OF INTERVENTION. 15 

merely by our entire periodical press,* and in the pri- 
mary assemblies of the people, but in our gravest state 
papers, not excluding the annual "Messages" of the 
Presidents, and in the solemn enactments of our federal 
legislature. The despots of the world well know, and 
the friends of freedom in all lands know, where we 
stand. Our " line is gone out through all the earth, and 
our words unto the end of the world." Never, until 
we shall have sunk so low in virtue and patriotism as 
to be fit only for a servile yoke ourselves, can we cease 
to desire, and in all prudent and legitimate methods, 
to promote the progress of rational liberty throughout 
the earth. 

It is precisely on this ground, that the Utopian doc- 
trine of " intervention to prevent intervention," which 
now solicits our sanction, is to be condemned. It is 
because the recognition of it by the government of the 
United States would be most disastrous to the cause 
of liberty and enlightened progress both at home and 
abroad. Because it would throw the influence of this 
nation, hitherto the beneficent guardian of peace and 
happiness among the nations, into the scale of merci- 
less and insatiable war. 

I have stigmatized the doctrine as " Utopian." This 
is characterizing it by too mild a term. We are called 
upon to interpolate in the law of nations, at the point 
of the bayonet, if it can be done by no milder process, 
the provision, that, whenever one nation forcibly inter- 

* Some of the Romish journals excepted. 



16 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

feres in the domestic concerns of another, this shall 
be deemed by other nations a justifiable cause of war, 
and they shall accordingly take up arms against the 
offending state. "Interpolated" it must be, and that 
"at the point of the bayonet," if this dictum is to be 
incorporated in the international code. It will be time 
enough to talk of elevating it to this high dignity, 
when a single leading cabinet can be found which has 
not "intervened" in the affairs of other nations. To 
speak of what the great continental powers have done 
and are constantly doing in this line, would be super- 
fluous. We are more concerned to know how England 
stands affected towards the rule, since it is proposed, 
or rather was proposed, when Kossuth was there, to 
associate her with ourselves in carrying it into effect. 
One of her own prominent journals shall supply us 
with the requisite information : — 

" The English ought to know something about in- 
tervention, for they have had some experience of it, 
and are paying dear for that experience. We inter- 
fered in behalf of royalty and order in France. We 
have interfered to deliver her and Europe from anar- 
chists and military adventurers. We drove the French 
out of Sicily, and restored it to the King of Naples. 
Our fleets girded the shores of Italy, and by that and 
other services we earned from the Pope the memora- 
ble declaration that George III. was the best of his 
suljjects. We helped to drive the French out of Portu- 
gal and Spain. More recently, we have kept up a long 
course of interference in the affairs of the Peninsula, 



OF INTERVENTION. 17 

and have helped materially to set up two constitutional 
queens. Russia, Austria, Prussia, and other smaller 
states, have to thank us for immense subsidies, and for 
other assistance, to which they are greatly indebted 
for the respectable figure they severally make on the 
map of Europe. We have interfered to give liberty 
and independence to Greece, and bless her with a court 
and a king. We have interfered to save Turkey from 
being utterly swallowed up by Mehemet Ali and his 
son, and have restored the Holy Land to the paternal 
dominion of the Porte. We have interfered, first, to 
give Belgium to the king of Holland, and then to take 
it away and make it independent. Indeed, it is diffi- 
cult to say where we have not interfered, what govern- 
ment we have not thwarted or befriended, what people 
we have not backed up against their ruler, or what 
ruler we have not assisted against his subjects. But 
it is scarcely necessary to particularize interferences, 
seeing that nearly all our wars for the last sixty years 
have been wars of interference, viz., for the purely 
philanthropical object of establishing order and free- 
dom in foreign countries, propagating constitutional 
ideas, adjusting the balance of power, and reforming- 
mankind after the model of England."* 

This summary will enable us to judge how far Eng- 
land is prepared to join with us in engrafting the pro- 
posed novelty upon Puffendorf and Vattel. When- 

* Quoted in the Neio York Observer, of January 15th ; a journal 
■which has discussed this question, on the anti-Kossuth side, in a series 
of editorial articles written with much ability and candor. 



18 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

ever she is ready to repudiate the whole course of her 
public policy, she will do it — and not till then. Mean- 
while, she will continue to provide palaces for fugitive 
kings; and leave popular heroes, who may reach her 
shores in misfortune, to such comfort as they may 
gather from the cheers of the ixople, abated by the 
studied indifference of the crown, the aristocracy, the 
established clergy, and the cabinet. 

Candor requires the acknowledgment that, in some 
of these cases of intervention, the British government 
has had our cordial approval. Not to specify doubt- 
ful examples, where is the American who did not 
heartily commend the joint intervention of the three 
allied powers in behalf of Greece? Had the new 
statute then been in force, the battle of Navarino had 
not been fought, and Greece must have fallen back 
under the iron rule of the Moslem. Nor is this all. 
If, in the face of this international compact, the allies 
had interfered, we and other nations must have inter- 
vened against them ! We must have sided with the 
Turk against the Greek, with the Crescent against the 
Cross, with the tyrant against his victims. 

Or, to come to a still more recent example, one of 
the first acts of the pseudo French republic of '48, 
was to issue a " Manifesto to Europe," full of inflated 
protestations about liberty, in which there occurred 
this passage : " If the independent States of Italy 
should ])e invaded ; if limits or obstacles should be 
opposed to their internal changes; if there should be 
any armed interference with their right of allying 



OF INTERVENTION". 19 

themselves together for the purpose of consolidating 
an Italian nation, the French republic would think 
itself entitled to take up arms in defence of those law- 
ful movements for the improvement and the nation- 
ality of States." The next thing we hear, after this 
sublime flourish, Italy is " invaded," " limits and ob- 
stacles are opposed to her internal changes," an " armed 
interference" represses the will of her people, and a 
French army, storming the " Eternal City" amidst 
carnage and blood, subverts the infant republic, and 
reconstructs the throne of sacerdotal despotism. The 
infamy of this procedure has no archetype except in 
the blackest pages of European history. Sooner or 
later, retributive justice will avenge it upon that per- 
fidious nation, if, indeed, they are not already reaping 
the fruit of it. Suppose, now, instead of the inter- 
vention of this mock-republic against the Roman peo- 
ple, England had interposed for them ; that a British 
army had landed at Civita Yecchia, and protected the 
triumvirate in carrying into effect the expressed wishes 
of the nation for a change of government. What 
course would the new enactment have imposed upon 
the other nations, and ourselves as one of them ? 
Why, that we should " intervene" to resist England. 
That we should espouse the cause of the priestly fu- 
gitive the Romans had, by common consent, deposed 
from his secular sovereignty, and replace in the Vati- 
can that double-headed tyranny which has been the 
scourge of Christendom for the last twelve hundred 
years! Such would be the practical working of the 



20 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

princii:>le we are seriously asked to recognize, and 
even compel the rest of the world to recognize, as an 
essential provision of international law. 

Without amplifying this point, the conclusions to 
which we are shut up are manifest. As a general 
proposition, the abstract right of every nation to man- 
age its own affairs, must l^e admitted. Occasions 
may arise, however, to justify foreign intervention. 
The mere fact of intervention determines nothing as 
to its character ; it may or may not be an infringe- 
ment of international rights. In some cases, it sup- 
plies a just ground of war on the part of other nations. 
In other cases, it is so far from being a casus belli, that 
it imposes on other nations an obligation of gratitude 
to the " intervening" nation, as being eminently con- 
ducive to the interests of humanity and constitutional 
liberty. The rights and obligations involved in the 
matter are too diversified and intricate to be adjusted 
by sweeping, categorical canons. Cases must be dis- 
posed of as they arise, each on its own merits. Every 
cabinet must meet the question of right and the ques- 
tion of policy, on its own responsibility to God and the 
civilized world. Governments, too, must act on those 
common-sense principles which control individuals in 
analogous circumstances. No prudent man ties up his 
hands against all possil^le interference in the family 
quarrels of his neighbors; still less, pledges himself to 
figlit other people if they interfere. As a general rule, 
iiitcrrcic-iicc would be wrong in morals, and practically 
iiiiscliievous. But if a man learned that his neighbor 



OF INTERVENTION. 21 

was trying to murder his wife or children, he would 
be likely to interfere, and to get others to help him. 
Cabinets, that have not wedded themselves to an ab- 
straction, will reserve a similar discretion, neither pre- 
judging questions of intervention, nor hampering their 
freedom with self-imposed restrictions; since, "in truth, 
it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but iniquit- 
ous intermeddlings, or treacherous inaction, which is 
praised or blamed by the decision of an equitable 
judge."=-= 

The importance of these principles will be appa- 
rent as we proceed. They may especially aid us in 
comparing the new doctrine with the past policy of 
our government. 

When the Panama Mission was under discussion 
in the House of Representatives, in 1826, a distin- 
guished gentlemanf from this State, in the course 
of an able speech adverse to the appointment of 
an Envoy, said, in allusion to the President: "Know- 
ing that the American people considered an adher- 
ence to the Farewell Address of the man who was 
first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
his countrymen, to be the palladium of their safety, 
he has, by a long and ingenious argument, attempted 
to destroy its force." Without endorsing the censure 
upon the President expressed in this observation, it 
will recall to every mind what has happened in con- 
nection with the present excitement. At the very 

* Burke: On the Policy of the Allies. 
f Mr. Buchanan. 



22 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

first banquet tendered him in this country, the Hun- 
garian leader put forth all his powers in an ingenious 
argument to explain away the principles of the Fare- 
well Address. lie was too subtle an advocate and too 
shrewd a politician not to know that he could no more 
effect his object so long as Washington stood in his 
way, than an engineer can carry his rails through a 
granite barrier without tunnelling the rock. Whether 
it became him, an exile, invited to our shores by the 
generous hospitality of our Government, to set him- 
self up, almost before the spray of the ocean was dry 
upon his clothes, as the expositor of that immortal 
instrument, and to undertake to instruct the Ameri- 
can people in the true import of sentences which are 
among their household words, and written upon their 
heart of hearts — whether this was quite befitting to 
a man in his circumstances, is a point on which it 
might be thought there could be little difference of 
opinion. It is certain this was not the errand on 
which he was invited to this country. No adminis- 
tration, no Congress, would have sent a national shi]3 
to the Dardanelles to receive him, if it could have 
1 )een anticipated that, from the moment of his landing 
on our shores, he Avould employ his extraordinary 
powers in subverting the influence of Washington, 
and bringing al^out a radical change in our foreign 
policy. AVc stood in need of no such 'intervention,' 
and no such teaching. If we do not comprehend the 
principles of AVashington, at the end of a half century 
after his death, it is not probable we ever shall. Our 



OF INTERVENTION. 23 

new preceptor seems to imagine that, like the Ethi- 
opian treasurer who sat in his chariot and read the 
prophet Isaiah, we need a second Philip to help us 
"understand what we read;" and he has magnani- 
mously volunteered his exegetical services. With 
what success, must be judged by those who have sifted 
and weighed the impassioned sophistries with which, 
on so many occasions, he has labored to show that 
General Washington not only was not against his 
scheme, but was actually in favor of it ! Without ex- 
amining his arguments in detail, let us once more 
listen to Washington's own words. The Farewell Ad- 
dress is too familiar, to make it necessary that I should 
quote more than two or three sentences from it. 

" The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial rela- 
tions, to have as little ])olitical connection with them 
as possible." " Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have none, or a very remote relation. 
Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, 
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 
cerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to 
implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinarj^ 
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combina- 
tions and collisions of her friendships or enmities." 
" Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? 
Why quit our own, to stand upon foreign ground ? 
Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any 
part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in 
the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 



24 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

humor, or caprice ? It is our true policy to steer clear 
of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign 
world." 

The same judicious and patriotic sentiments are 
everywhere expressed in his Correspondence. 

" My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, so far 
as depended upon the Executive department, to com- 
ply strictly vsdth all our engagements, foreign and 
domestic; but to keep the United States free from 
poUtical connections with every other country, to see 
them independent of all, and under the influence of 
none. In a word, I want an American character, that 
the powers of Europe ma}^ be convinced we act for 
ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, 
is the only way to be respected abroad, and happy at 
home ; and not, by becoming the partisans of Great 
Britain or France, create dissensions, disturb the pub- 
lic tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the ce- 
ment which binds the Union."* 

" My policy has been, and will continue to be, while 
I have the honor to remain in the administration, to 
maintain friendly terms with, but l>e independent of, 
all the nations of the earth ; to share in the broils of 
none ; to fulfil our own engagements ; to supply the 
wants and te carriers for them all ; l^eing thoroughly 
convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so."f 

" No policy, in my opinion, can be more clearly 
demonstrated, than that we should do justice to all, 

* Letter to Patrick Henry, Oct. 9, 1795. 
t To Gouvcrncur Morris, Dec. 22, 1795, 



OF INTERVENTION". 25 

and have no political connection with any of the Euro- 
pean powers, beyond those which result from and serve 
to regulate our commerce Avith them. Our own ex- 
perience, if it has not already had this effect, will soon 
convince us, that the idea of disinterested favors or 
friendship from any nation whatever is too novel to 
be calculated on, and there will always be found a 
wide difference between the words and actions of any 
of them."* 

" It remains to be seen whether our country will 
stand upon independent ground, or be directed in its 
23olitical concerns hy any other nation. A little time 
will show who are its true friends, or, what is synon- 
ymous, who are true Americans ; those who are stimu- 
lating a foreign nation to unfriendly acts, repugnant to 
our rights and dignity, and advocating all its measures, 
or those whose only aim has been to maintain a strict 
neutrality, to keep the United States out of the vortex 
of European politics, and to preserve them in peace."f 
" On the politics of Europe, I shall express no opinion, 
nor make any inquiry who is right or who is wrong. 
I wish well to all nations and to all men. My politics 
are plain and simple. I think every nation has a 
right to establish that form of government under 
which it conceives it may live most happy, provided 
it infracts no right, or is not dangerous to others ; and 
that no governments ought to interfere with the internal 

* To William Heath, May 20, 1797. 
t To Thomas Pinckney, May 28, 1797. 



26 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

concerns of another, except for the security of what 
is due to themselves."* 

If these sentiments are not intelligible to the 
American people without an elaborate commentary, 
we are certainly below the average mental capacity 
of the human family. The simple truth is, Wash- 
ington has expressed himself on this subject with 
such explicitness, such earnestness, such deep solem- 
nity, even, that it requires a very high degree of 
assurance for any man to attempt to obscure or per- 
vert the clear and emphatic import of his words. 

The plea, that he enjoins "neutrality" merely as 
between belligerent nations, but " does not even re- 
commend non-interference,"f is the subterfuge of an 
advocate, not the fair and manly construction of a 
candid inquirer after truth. If he does not, in the 
passages just quoted, recommend to his countrymen 
non-interference in the concerns of other nations, 
then that idea cannot be embodied in language. And 
besides, the argument is from the greater to the less. 
If he protests against interference where nations are 
at war, much more does he protest against the adop- 
tion of any rule by which we shall bind ourselves to 
interfere wherever one nation has seen fit to meddle 
with the affairs of another. In the former case, we 
should ordinarily have but one war on our hands at 
a time ; in the latter, we should rarely, if ever, be 
out of war, and might easily have several wars to 

* To General Lafayette, Dec. 25, 1798. 

t Kossutli's Speech at the Corporation Banr^uet iu New York. 



OF INTERVENTION". 27 

manage at once. For this notion of playing High 
Sheriff among the nations, however flattering to our 
vanity, -would be found rather troublesome in the ex- 
ecution. There is no great extravagance in presum- 
ing that they might sometimes prove refractory; and 
if they should, what would remain for us but cannon 
and bayonets ? — But for the gravity of the subject, 
it would be positively ludicrous to hear the name of 
Washington invoked as sanctioning a doctrine legiti- 
mately leading to results like these. 

Allowing, however, that the country has correctly 
interpreted his counsels, they were only of " tempo- 
rary application." His policy was very well for our 
childhood, but it should be consigned to the Museums 
now, with the old revolutionary guns and uniforms. 
We are " too great a people" to isolate ourselves from 
the rest of the world, like the Japanese. Our voice 
should be heard, and our power felt, in adjusting the 
quarrels and shaping the destinies of the nations. 

Such are the syren strains with which both foreign 
and domestic orators are essaying to emancipate us 
from the servitude imposed on us by the Founders of 
the Republic, and ratified by every administration 
from President Washington's to President Fillmore's. 
That the relations and duties of nations may change 
with their growth, no one will deny. But it is for 
the advocates of the new scheme to show that the 
policy prescribed by our fathers is not as well suited 
to our manhood as it was to our infancy. We are 
"a great nation :" not quite so great as some politicians 



28 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

would have the people believe, but still, "a great 
nation." And what has made us one? An inflexible 
adherence, under God, to the principles we are now 
asked to discard. We are what we are, because 
"keeping out of the vortex of European politics,"* 
"avoiding all entangling alliances,"f and "abstaining 
from any intervention in the affairs of other govern- 
ments, as contrary to our principles of national 
policy,"^ we have minded our own business, taken 
care of our own interests, and applied ourselves, with 
an humble and grateful dependence on the Giver of 
all good, to the development and culture of those re- 
sources, physical, intellectual, and moral, which the 
munificence of the Creator has bestowed upon us with 
an unexampled prodigality. The auspicious results 
of this policy are before the world. They are the 
constant theme of our gratitude to God. They are 
no less the theme of eloquent eulogy with the Hun- 
garian chief and his American coadjutors, who in one 
breath laud our present position to the skies, and in 
the next exhort us to quit the broad thoroughfare 
which has conducted us to it, for intricate and tangled 
by-paths which no nation ever yet attempted without 
being seriously damaged, if not ruined. If they ex- 
pect us to heed their counsel, to sacrifice all our na- 
tional traditions, and embark on the stormy sea of 
European politics, let them show some solid reasons 
for it. This inflated declamation about our grandeur 

* Washington. f Jefferson. X Jackson. 



OF IXTERVEXTION". 29 

and our prowess is nothing to the purpose, unless they 
can set aside the maxims of Washington and his suc- 
cessors respecting the principles which should control 
our foreign policy. Let them prove, if they can, that 
Europe has ceased to have her own "primary in- 
terests," and her own "controversies," and that, "in 
extending our commercial relations, therefore, we 
should have as little ]political connection with her as 
possible." Let them show that, in virtue of our rapid 
advancement in the scale of nations, the time has 
come when we should "quit our own to stand upon 
foreign ground, and entangle our peace and prosperity 
in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humor, or caprice." In a word, let them demonstrate 
that it is not as much our wisdom and our duty now 
as it was in '95 and '98, to "keep the United States 
free from political connections with every other 
country;" to "maintain friendly terms with, but be 
independent of, all the nations of the earth; to share 
in the broils of none; to fulfil our own engagements; 
to supply the w^ants and be carriers for them all;" 
and not, by becoming the partisans of particular na- 
tions or cabinets, to "create dissensions, disturb the 
public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the 
cement which binds the Union." They have hitherto 
found it much easier to evade the real question at 
issue, than to show that these maxims were of mere 
temporary efficacy. Why, since the alternative has 
come to be, KOSSUTH or WASHINGTON, do they 
not grapple with the sul>ject, and show that Washing- 



30 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

ton's writings are only a horn-book for a people in 
leading-strings; and that, now we are out of the 
nursery, we must emulate the wisdom of the Hebrews, 
who, after Moses had led them safely across the sea, 
were for discarding him, to set up some extemporane- 
ous captain of their own choosing ? In the absence 
of any such frank and courageous dealing with the 
teachings of Washington, various considerations are 
brought forward in support of the new policy. 

We have been admonished by the able and accom- 
plished inventor of the scheme, that self-preservation 
requires our acceptance of it. The despots of Europe 
will not be satisfied with suppressing the free nation- 
alities contiguous to them. Having effected this end, 
they will turn their attention to the United States. 
"And if (so he has told us) you do not take the 
positicm I humbly claim, you will have to fight a war 
single-handed, within less than five years, against 
Russia and all Europe.'"'' '• Remember — you will 
have to fight, surrounded by enemies, weakened by 
discord, standing forsaken, single-handed, alone, 
against the whole world.''-]- 

And so, in the same strain, " Professor Kiukel," at 
Louisville : If you suffer Germany to fall, '' the united 
fleets of Europe will prevent your trade, and block up 
the ways of communication between our shores — no 
emigrant will ])e allowed to come to you to strengthen 
^•our [)()\\('r ; and, if you will live, then 30U, a jDCople 

* At Pittsburg. t At Cincinnuti. 



OF INTERVENTION. 31 

of twenty-four millions, will have to fight against two 
hundred millions of Europeans." 

This is sufhciently startling, or would be, if either 
Kossuth or Kinkel bore the credentials of a prophet- 
It is not, however, without a parallel in our history. 
Precisely the same argument was used by Citizen Ge- 
net, the obnoxious Minister of the French Directory, in 
his incendiary efforts to embroil us in a war with Eng- 
land in '93. In a letter from Henry Lee to General 
Washington, written in June of that year, he says, 
in describing an interview with Genet : " He seemed 
to acquiesce in my reasoning, but insinuated that, 
in case the royal government was re-established in 
France, the kings of Europe would combine to destroy 
liberty here, and that our existence as a nation de- 
pended on the success of the Republican system (in 
France)." This proj)hecy shared the common fate 
of uninspired vaticinations. It remains to be seen 
whether a second edition of it will fare any better. 
Let the morrow take thought for the things of itself 
We must look after the duties of to-day. It will be 
hard to convince a " calculating" people like our coun- 
trymen, that it is one of these duties to go to war 
with Russia, lest we may, at the end of a single lus- 
trum, have to fight the whole w^orld. 

But the consideration which is pressed with the 
most vehemence, not only by our distinguished visi- 
tor, but at popular meetings and on the floor of Con- 
gress, is, that it does not become such a power as the 
United States to be indifferent to the struggles of 



32 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

other nations laboring to achieve their independence. 
The charge imphed in this language has already been 
repelled. It is simply untrue. It proceeds upon the 
assumption that there is only one method in which 
we can display our sympathy in the progress of 
liberty abroad, and that to decline the scheme of in- 
tervention, is equivalent to doing nothing. 

It is difficult to believe that this is urged with sin- 
cerity; for there is not an intelligent boy amongst us, 
who does not know that the influence of our institu- 
tions is felt throughout tlie civilized world. Instead 
of doing nothing for the cause of freedom, we have 
done more during the present century than all other 
earthly agencies combined. The question now to be 
settled, is, whether we shall adhere to a policy which 
has been attended with such resplendent advantages 
to mankind, or launch forth upon a career of experi- 
ment which must imperil our own capacities of useful- 
ness and obstruct the emancipation of other nations. 

To some minds, that conservation of our own insti- 
tutions, which has given us so rare a power to do 
good, seems quite too tame an object to engross the 
ambition of a " great republic." We have reached a 
point where we can safely bestow a moiety of the care 
hitherto demanded by our own aftkirs, upon the con- 
cerns of other nations. The exigencies of a mixed 
population of twenty-three millions, spread over twen- 
ty-one degrees of latitude, and fifty-four degrees of 
longitude, with every variety of climate and produc 
tion, a maritime and inland frontier of several thou- 



OF INTERVENTION. 33 

sand miles in extent, a commerce which whitens every 
sea, conflicting sectional jealousies, violent political 
contests, a most delicate combination of Federal and 
State relations, and accumulating masses of ignorance, 
lawlessness, and semi-barbarism, can all be provided 
for, and still leave us free to assume the protectorate 
of human rights and the executive of international 
law, for the rest of the world. Could national vanity 
or national infatuation go further ? One hundred and 
fifty years ago, a classic poet of England celebrated 
lier mission in these characteristic lines : — 

" 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, 
And hold in balance each contending State ; 
To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, 
And answer her afflicted neighbor's prayer." 

This is the identical mission which is now chal- 
lenged for us ; the only difference being that, instead 
of having it propounded in graceful poetry, it is com- 
mended to us in very thrilling prose. If we are readj^ 
to take the post, there is no' fear but that England 
will resign it to us; for, when these verses were writ- 
ten, her public debt was sixteen millions of pounds 
sterling, and now it is about eight hundred millions. 
The greater part of this enormous sum has gone in 
carrying out her self-assumed vocation of maintaining 
the balance of power and redressing her neighbors 
grievances. It may be well to ponder these figures, 
before we offer to relieve her of her police-duties. 

For, if we become the sponsors of the Kossuth 
principle, " Intervention to prevent intervention," how 
3 



34 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

is it possible to avoid war? He has himself conceded 
the point. In his address to the New York Bar, he 
spoke as follows : — 

" Yes, gentlemen, I confess, should Russia not re- 
spect such a declaration of your country, then you 
are obliged, literally obliged, to go to war, or else be 
prepared to be degraded before mankind from your 
dignity. Yes, I confess that would be the case. But 
you are powerful enough to defy any powder on earth 
in a just cause, as your Washington said; so may God 
help me, as it is true, that never was there yet a more 
just cause. There was enough of war on the earth 
for ambition, or egotistical interests even for womanly 
whims, to give to humanity the glorious example of a 
great people going even to war, not for egotistical in- 
terest, but for justice of the law^ of nations, for the 
law of nature and of nature's God, and it will be no 
<2;reat mischief after all. Protect them, defend them 
ever, if thou hast to go to war for it ! That will be 
a holier war than ever . yet was, and the blessing of 
God will be with thee. And yet, if the question of 
war is to be considered, not from the view of right, 
duty, and law, wdiicli still, in my opinion, is a decisive 
(jne ; but, from the view of mere policy, then I believe 
that you must not shrink back from the mere word 
• war.' There is no harm in the mere empty word ; 
three little letters, very innocent, that's all !" 

It is not for others to reconcile with this passage, 
the conviction he expressed in connection with it, that 
the course he recommended would not lead to a Rus- 



OF INTERVENTION. 35 

slan war. None but a novice in political affairs can, 
for a moment, believe that we could attempt to en- 
force his doctrine, without going to war. It is pre- 
posterous to suppose that Russia or Austria, or any 
European State, would submit to dictation from us. 
And the advocates of the new dogma would manifest 
more respect for the intelligence of the country, by a 
candid admission of the truth on this point. Had 
Kossuth seen fit to pursue a different course, simply 
to plead the cause of his oppressed race, and solicit 
help for them, he would have had the whole country 
at his feet, and " material aid" would have flowed in 
upon him, not, as now, in driblets, but in a generous 
flood. But he sadly mistook his mission. Under a 
most mischievous bias, confirmed if not communicated 
by certain inflammatory speeches from Americans 
abroad, he came here, as a second Peter the Hermit, 
to preach up a crusade against all absolute govern- 
ments, and against Russia in particular. He has tra- 
versed the country to get up a public sentiment which 
shall coerce the government into the adoption of his 
plans. He is exerting his utmost abilities to brino- us 
into a position utterly alien from all our traditions, 
and which could not fail to supply the European pow- 
ers with ample pretexts for intermeddling in our af- 
fairs. In a word, if he could succeed in his object, the 
actual result would be to convert us into a great mili- 
tary nation, with whatever that might entail of ambi- 
tion, vice, fiiction, wars, suffering, public debt, finan- 
cial disasters, and the endless train of calamities and 



36 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

crimes inseparable from an aggressive policy. It is 
too much to expect that we should bear all this in 
silence. Neither the wrongs of Hungary, nor the du- 
ties of hospitality, forbid our protesting in the most 
emphatic terms against this ungrateful abuse of our 
kindness. When we want advice as to the manage- 
ment of our affairs, we will seek it ; and we must re- 
serve the right of choosing our counsellors. The in- 
dehcacy of this interference finds no mitigation either 
in the indulgence with which it has been treated, or 
in our past relations with Hungary. In the manner 
of it there is nothing to commend, everything to cen- 
sure. The conduct of our foreign affliirs belongs to 
the government, not to the people in mass meetings. 
If he had a diplomatic measure to propose, it was per- 
fectly competent to him to submit it to the existing 
administration, and they must have disposed of it on 
their responsibihty to God and the country. But, 
knowing that this would be fatal to his chimerical 
project, and presuming on the fertile resources of his 
oratory, he ignores the functions of the government, 
and brings his suit before an unauthorized and irre- 
sponsible tribunal. He has even gone so far on a re- 
cent occasion as to use language like this : — 

" My second reason for forming these associations, 
is, that the cheers of the i^eople are not recorded in 
Washington city ; but when I can show the records 
of these associations ; when they have joined together 
and act in unison ; when they consist of hundreds of 
thousands, perhaps millions of people; when out of 



OF INTERVENTION. 37 

the small drops of individual sympathy a vast ocean 
has been formed, then, indeed, though their cheers 
may not be weighed, their names and influence will 
be."* 

I will not trust myself to comment on this extra- 
ordinary language, beyond a single observation. 
What must be the capacity of a nation for free insti- 
tutions, the ostensible head of which can permit him- 
self to prostitute the sympathy and confidence of a 
great people to the purpose of arraying that people 
against their government, and that on a most delicate 
and complex question originated by himself, and on 
his application ahne demanding an answer ? This 
question may do the Hungarians injustice, but it is 
impossible to repress the unwelcome apprehensions 
awakened by observing how ill their late governor 
seems to understand the reciprocal relations of a free 
government and its citizens. 

It is, unhappily, true that numerous convocations 
have voted their adhesion to the new doctrine, and, 
in some instances, their desire to have our govern- 
ment enforce it at all htizards. It is this circum- 
stance which gives the movement its importance, and 
justifies even the pulpit in resisting it. The Chris- 
tian ministry is appointed to look after the interests 
of morality and religion. Nothing is so disastrous to 
these interests as war, and if we are ever called upon 
to co-operate with our fellow-citizens in averting this 
terrible calamity, we are warranted in doing it, when 

* Speech at Salem, Ohio- 



38 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

a zealous apostle of war is stealing the hearts of the 
nation, and working them up to a crusade, the folly 
of which has no parallel since Western Europe poured 
itself in a mighty avalanche upon Palestine for the 
recovery of the holy sepulchre. And there is the 
more reason why sober-minded men of all professions 
should frown upon this agitation, because there is so 
much material in the country which can by skilful 
management be made subservient to it. 

It has, for example, even been used as an argument 
in favor of the scheme, that we have a very large body 
of foreigners amongst us who must feel a deep inte- 
rest in the spread of liberal principles abroad. This 
reference is to the Germans, Poles, and others from 
continental Euroj)e, many of whom have been driven 
here by political convulsions. Among them, unfor- 
tunately, there is a large sprinkling of the wildest 
radicals — demagogues in politics and atheists in reli- 
gion. 

It is said that there are about one hundred German 
newspapers in the United States, nearly all af which 
belong to the socialist school, and advocate the worst 
doctrines of the socialist creed. Some of these men, 
almost before .they can speak our language, are plot- 
ting the subversion of the very institutions which 
have afforded them a refuge from oppression, possibly 
a shelter from the galloAvs. One of their associations 
in Richmond, a few months since, published a pro- 
gramme comprising the heads of " Reform" the}' mean 
to aim at. The following is a sample : — 



OF INTERVENTION. 39 

"We demand the abolition of the presidency; the 
abolition of the senate, so that the legislature shall 
consist of only one branch ; the right of the people to 
dismiss their representatives at their pleasure; all 
lawsuits to be conducted without expense; the abo- 
lition of all neutrality; intervention in favor of every 
people struggling for liberty ; abolition of laws for the 
observance of the Sabbath; abolition of prayers in 
congress; abolition of oath upon the Bible; abolition 
of land monopoly; taking possession of the railroads 
by the state; abolition of the Christian system of 
punishment, and introduction of the human ameliora- 
tion system; abolition of capital punishment." 

The association which put forth this platform " has 
its ramifications with similar societies in all parts of 
the Union, and they pledge themselves to work 
unitedly to accomplish these objects." 

It would be very unjust to the Hungarian leader 
to connect his name with these nefarious proceedings. 
In the speeches he delivered in England, he dis- 
claimed all sympathy with socialism, politically or 
religiously, and is entitled to the full benefit of those 
disclaimers. But when we are urged to adopt his 
favorite principle respecting intervention, as an act of 
justice to the Europeans who live amongst us, it is 
quite pertinent to bring forward the disorganizing 
radicalism of these associations in bar of the argument. 
They reveal the remarkable fact that we have, in the 
very heart of our population, a disciplined band of 
revolutionists. We have been accustomed to think 



40 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

that our system, whatever else might happen to it, 
was beyond the reach of revolution; that its fundar 
mental principles, which are as little affected by the 
common agitations of party as the rocky bed of the 
ocean by the fluctuations of the waves, could never 
be called in question. But it seems, in the judgment 
of these alien anarchists, nothing is settled. The 
whole ship must be dismantled, her very hull broken 
up, and everything, from keel to royal-mast, rebuilt. 
This is what they modestly call " Reform," but what, 
if it has its proper name, can only be styled Destruc- 
tion. To reason with such men is, of course, not to 
be thought of To entrust them with political power 
would be suicidal. They affiliate irresistibly with 
discontent and turbulence. Like the stormy-petrel, 
the tempest is their proper element. They hate our 
prudence in shunning foreign alliances. Everything 
that looks towards an interference with the aff'airs of 
Europe will have their staunch advocacy. They may 
not like the Hungarian's character, but they will 
relish his project, and would relish it still more if they 
could infuse more radicalism into it. If we are not 
dragged into the first war that occurs across the water, 
it will not be their fault. Do we well to countenance 
a scheme which would find in men of this stamp its 
readiest supporters, and which they would be certain 
to use to our detriment and that of other nations ? 

Then, again, there is the vainglorious spirit which 
has diffused its vicious leaven through our whole 
national character, and which all politicians, foreign 



OF INTERYENTION. 41 

and domestic, can play upon so skilfully. This is, by 
eminence, the lever which Kossuth has wielded with 
such signal effect, from his speech at Staten Island to 
his last speech in Ohio — nay, which he began to ply 
before he left England. It is the fuze he keeps always 
lighted; and whether he has before him the Bar or 
the populace, the women or the children, our grave 
legislators or still graver divines, he thrusts in the 
match, and is sure to find tinder. No people could 
be more conscious of the grandeur of their position 
than we are. True to our lineage, we never lapse 
into the weakness of disparaging our resources and 
achievements. What we have done is considerable, 
but it is nothing to what we can do and mean to do. 
Having subdued this continent, we are now, if we 
may trust our popular orators, to set about the re- 
generation of Europe. Europe, it is true, has felt our 
influence, and is feeling it through ten thousand un- 
obtrusive channels. But these processes are too slow 
for this magnificent nineteenth century, and this still 
more magnificent country. We are called to more 
summary action. Twenty millions of American free- 
men are surely equal to two hundred and thirty mil- 
lions of Europeans, and are bound to see that their 
sovereigns treat them well and help them on, as fast 
as possible, towards republican institutions. This is 
our mission. We have coasted along the shore long 
enough; a richer harvest than that which tempted 
Columbus invites us, and we must turn our prows to 
the ocean. Henceforth our government becomes a 



42 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

grand Collegium de proixiganda libertate, and we go 
on to our destiny as the renovators of the w^orld ! 

Is it not humihating that, with multitudes of our 
countr^Tnen, badinage hke this should be sober prose ? 
Yet so it is : for it is precisely this material which 
forms the warp and woof of the most effective speeches, 
whenever our relations with the old world come under 
discussion. And it is the prevalence of this spirit, so 
capable of being wrought upon for evil, wdiich should 
put the conservatism of the country upon an organ- 
ized and resolute resistance to the visionary scheme 
we are combating. 

The manifest absurdity of this scheme, and its ruin- 
ous tendency, in the naked form of " intervention to 
prevent intervention," have led to the preparation of 
a substitute. It is proposed simply to notify the 
cabinets of the world, that we shall regard any inter- 
ference by one nation in the domestic concerns of 
another, as a breach of international law^ — ^leaving it 
to be decided as cases arise, wdiether to follow this 
declaration by protest, by an appeal to arms, or by 
nothing at all. 

This question I am not called upon to discuss. 
But there are two observations which may be made 
upon it. The first is, that nations cannot play at 
mock-fighting. In the lexicography of diplomatists, 
names are things. Protocols and protests do not 
necessarily involve more stringent measures. But a 
cabinet which is jealous of its dignity, will be chary 



OF INTERYENTION. 43 

of its menaces. It is as dangerous for prime minis- 
ters as it is for children to play with edge-tools. 

The other observation is, that all demonstrations of 
the kind referred to on the part of a great power, con- 
vey to oppressed nations an assurance of something 
more than naked sympathy. Their tendency is to en- 
courage such nations to revolt. How far this may be 
proper in any given case, is not now the question. 
But common humanity, not to speak of justice, is 
outraged, when a cabinet stimvdates a people to strike 
for their freedom, and then denies them the succors 
they had on fair moral grounds, if not by formal 
stipulation, been warranted to expect. 

It is not denied, however, that cases may arise in 
which intervention in this form, and even with some- 
thing more significant than parchment manifestoes, 
would be both our right and our duty. If the United 
States occupied the territory which constitutes the 
domain of Turkey, or that of Prussia, the very case 
which has occasioned the present crusade might have 
proved one of this description. The question then 
would have been, whether the law of self-protection 
did not require us to repel, by whatever means, the 
barbarous assault of Russia upon the liberties of 
Hungary. Situated as we are, our abstract right to 
interpose, should the same emergency occur a second 
time, may be conceded. But will any sane man con- 
tend that the possession of a right carries with it an 
obligation to the constant exercise of that right ? Let 
this principle be adopted in the administration of our 



A 



44 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

foreign affairs ; that, wherever we have the right, we 
are bound to interfere to prevent interference ; and it 
needs no prophet to foretell that it would be to us 
" the great Serbonian bog betwixt Damiata and Mount 
Casius, where armies whole have sunk." Besides, an 
abstract political right may be so exercised as to in- 
volve a moral wrong. Before we can be justified in 
arraigning another state for its misdeeds, a fair pre- 
sumption must be made out, that the effort will do 
more good than harm. " The power inadequate to 
all other things, is often more than sufficient to do 
mischief"* And the advocates of the scheme now 
before the country, will have to tax their ingenuity to 
show that any interference of ours between Hungary 
and Russia, would not turn out to be simply " a power 
to do mischief" There are individuals among them — 
men not apt to be carried away by dreams and visions 
— who believe that this measure would be highly bene- 
ficial to Hungary. But even if this could be estal> 
lished, it would remain to be proved, that the ultimate 
consequences would not be most disastrous to our- 
selves, and to the general amelioration of mankind. 
It is too evident to admit of debate (the iteration of 
the sentiment may be excused), that we owe the 
elevated position we have attained among the nations, 
in no small measure, to the policy we have pursued 
with inflexible rigor, of standing aloof from their 
quarrels, and having as little political connection with 
tliem as possible. Is this a time to abandon a policy 

* Burke. 



OF INTERVENTION". 45 

which has, under God, consolidated our institutions, 
developed our resources, spread over our vast territory 
the symbols and appliances of peace and plenty, intel- 
ligence and virtue, poured into our lap the riches of 
every clime, secured us the respect of every people 
and cabinet, and made our name, not merely a talis- 
man of hope, but a tower of strength, to the oppressed 
and the injured of all lands? When in answer to 
this, hereditary vanity or foreign adulation cites these 
very facts as a reason for repudiating the maxims of 
our fathers, does not history counsel us against hsten- 
ing to their seducing sophistries ? Do not the moss- 
covered ruins of gorgeous cities and the mausoleums 
of empires, scattered all along the track of time, warn 
us with an eloquence surpassing all human oratory 
against exchanging the steady, vigilant care of our 
own interests, for an ambitious intermeddling in the 
concerns of other nations? That those nations are 
brought so much nearer to us than formerly, so far 
from strengthening the adverse argument, is an addi- 
tional reason why we should not cultivate too great 
an intimacy with them. Just in proportion as the 
Atlantic is narrowed to a " ferry," shall we be swept 
towards that dangerous " vortex" of which Washington 
admonished us. The currents which bear us in that 
direction will steadily increase in volume and velocity. 
Setting aside the augmenting influence of commerce 
and travel, the annual transfer of three or four hun- 
dred thousand Europeans to our soil, will foster the 
disposition already too apparent here, to interfere in 



46 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

the politics of that continent. Appeals for interven- 
tion are already multiplying. Before the ink was 
fairly dry which recorded in the official journals the 
reception of Kossuth by Congress, the honors paid him 
were urged before the Senate as a " precedent" for our 
" intervening" with another cabinet in a case of alleged 
oppression, and petitions were presented for an act of 
mediation with still a third sovereign, in behalf of 
certain of his aggrieved subjects. Once fairly inaugu- 
rated, this policy will mature as rapidly as Jonah's 
gourd; though not, perhaps, to wither so soon. We 
shall need, if not a new department at Washington, 
at least a new bureau, to conduct our " Intervention 
account" with foreign governments ; and those govern- 
ments, not to be backward in reciprocating such 
favors, will see that our Congressional debates are 
enlivened by the frequent introduction of proposals to 
assist us in managing our private affairs. Possibly 
this system might average better results to the great 
family of nations. The Austrians, and the Chinese, 
and some others, might breathe more freely under a 
sovereignty shared by our President; but it is not 
quite so clear that we should be among the gainers. 
And as this is a point of some little moment to us, it 
may be well for our legislators to look into it before 
they adopt the new code. 

The tone of these remarks may not accord with the 
exceeding gravity of the subject. For who can con- 
template the condition of Europe, without shuddering 
to think of the consequences which must follow, if, at 



OF INTERVENTION. 47 

such a crisis, we go forth under the impulse of a gener- 
ous but illusive knight-errantry, to implicate ourselves 
in her conflicts ? There is a graphic passage in one 
of Washington's letters,* so applicable to the present 
juncture, that it might seem to have been written for 
the occasion. 

" With respect to the nations of Europe, their situa- 
tion appears so awful, that nothing short of Omnipo- 
tence can predict the issue; although every human 
mind must feel for the miseries it endures. Our course 
is plain ; they who run may read it. Theirs is so be- 
wildered and dark, so entangled and embarrassed, and 
so obviously under the influence of intrigue, that one 
would suppose, if anything could open the eyes of our 
misled citizens, that the deplorable situation of those 
people could not fail to effect it." 

What is their condition now but that of a boiling 
caldron? There is no one sentiment in which men 
of all ranks and professions, of all creeds and parties, 
on both sides of the Atlantic, are more thoroughly 
agreed, than that Europe is on the eve of a general 
war. This is one of the favorite common-places of the 
Magyar. He dilates upon it in every speech. He 
depicts it prophetically as the grand contest which is 
to decide the fate of the nations. He declares that the 
struggle has already begun, in the late usurpation in 
France ; and professes to be expecting letters by every 
steamer, recalling him to take his proper post in con- 
ducting it. And yet, in the same breath in which he 

* To Oliver Wolcott, May 29, 1797. 



48 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

delineates the terrific scenes of this exterminating war, 
he calls upon us, "raising our gigantic arm in a com- 
manding attitude, to speak these words to the Russian 
Bear, ^Keep back!' and to the Czar, * Hands off!'"* 
Does the man think we are demented? Can he ima- 
gine that the cheers which these inflammatory appeals 
elicit from masses crazed by the sorcery of his elo- 
quence, indicate the sober convictions of the people of 
the United States ? Does his ff\miliarity with history 
supply him with a solitary example of national folly 
and insanity at all comparable to that which this na- 
tion would present, should we accede to his counsel ? 
Or can he cite a single other instance in which an ex- 
patriated stranger, the guest of a great and prosperous 
people, has presumed to offer himself to that people 
as the expositor of their foreign policy, in place of 
one who had earned, by every tie which wisdom, virtue, 
patriotism, magnanimity, and a long life of disin- 
terested and arduous service in the field and the cabi- 
net could confer, a title to that most venerable name, 
the " Father of his country ?" 

And with what view, after all, are we asked to 
commit our bark, freighted as it is with the best 
hopes of humanity, to this treacherous sea, at the 
moment when earth and heaven are blackening and 
quaking with the approaching hurricane ? Why, since 
the storm must come, and a whole continent is to reel 
under its Titanic convulsions, and so many ancient 
and massive structures are to be shattered to pieces, 

* Speech in Baltimore. 



OF INTERVENTION. 49 

why should we, of dehberation and choice, rush into 
the turmoil and invite its fury ? The only repl}' to 
these questions, is the following : " The freedom of the 
nations is confided to your custody, and fidelity to 
your trust demands of you this sacrifice." The answer 
is worthy of the reasoning which suggests it ; most 
unworthy of the sacred cause it is designed to subserve. 
Not to note the subtle appeal it makes to our vanity, 
it proceeds upon the pernicious fallacy, that mere 
political liberty — the enfranchisement of the masses 
and an equality of civil rights — comprises all the ele- 
ments of national stability and happiness; and hence, 
that republican institutions can be propagated by 
diplomacy or the sword. A more Utopian heresy in 
politics was never propounded. It has its ecclesiasti- 
cal prototype in the scheme of those zealous princes 
of the seventh and eighth centuries, who putthemselves 
at the head of their regiments and dragooned whole 
tribes of savages into the Church, Treading in the 
steps of these warlike evangelists, there is a modern 
school of political reformers, whose prime conception 
of freedom, is, that it consists in democratic charters 
and usages ; and that, wherever these can be estab- 
lished, a nation is put on the high road to prosperity 
and renown. As reasonable to argue that the true 
way to insure order in our public schools, would be 
to convert them into pure democracies by deposing 
all the teachers and remitting their functions to the 
■posse comitaius. Nay, this is doing our boys injustice. 
4 



50 TPIE NEW DOCTRINE 

For if there is a single school in which the pupils 
would not display more capacity for self-government 
than the French nation has done since the bloody 
epoch of '93, the Board of Controllers should know 
the reason. To go back but a very short time, four 
years ago to a month (as the speaker can testify from 
personal observation) " Liberty-trees" were planted 
in Paris, and the other chief towns of the new-born 
" Republic," amidst the pgeans of the populace and 
with sacerdotal benisons. But they would not grow. 
After the buds which were on them died, which they 
did very soon, not one of them ever sprouted. And 
within the last two months, for aught that appears to 
the contrary, amidst the shouts of the same populace, 
and with the benedictions of the same priests, they 
have been chopped down and made into bonfires. It 
was an idle experiment, on a par with the most ab- 
surd of those which are recorded of amateur cultiva- 
tors. You might as well plant the palmetto in Iceland, 
or the Victoria Regia in the heart of Sahara, as '• Lib- 
erty-trees" in a soil which has never been broken up 
and mixed with the rich mould of Gospel-truth. The 
tree of life was in the beginning placed side by side 
with the tree of knowledge : and social reformers should 
have learned before now, that what " God thus joined 
together, man may not put asunder." In our soil, 
they never have been "put asunder." From the 
first settlement of the continent to the present hour, 
we have gone upon the principle, that an ignorant 
or a vicious people cannot be a free people. 



I 



OF INTERVENTION. 51 

Nor was it in this alone that the preparation of 
the North American colonists, for libertj*, consisted. 
They were no strangers either to the science of gov- 
ernment or to the exercise of civil franchises. Their 
protracted conflicts with the crown, and the peculiar 
exigencies growing out of their separation into isolated 
communities, each of which had to manage its own 
affairs, had made them thoroughl}?^ conversant with 
the principles of just administration. They came out 
of the revolutionary war, therefore, trained to enjoy 
and improve the independence their valor had won. 

So also in England, the work of reform has been 
gradual but progressive. From the memorable day 
on which the barons wrested Magna Charta from the 
perfidious John at Runnymede until now, the popular 
element has been, on the whole, and with many tem- 
porary reverses, gaining strength. Power is always 
sensitive and tenacious ; and history presents no finer 
study than the sublime contest which has been going 
on in that country for several centuries, and of late 
with increased energy, between prerogative and free- 
dom — the crown and the aristocracy on the one hand, 
and the people on the other. Nature supplies an apt 
illustration of it, in the dash of the ocean against a 
majestic cliff — assailing it from 3^ear to year with the 
steady flux and reflux of the tide — now lashing it 
with storms — and ever and anon gathering up its 
mighty surges, and discharging them upon it with 
a fury which makes it quiver to its topmost pinnacle. 



52 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

Particle by particle, crag by crag, the granite barrier 
succumbs, and buries itself in the bosom of the waters. 
And step by step — never without resistance — some- 
times from conviction — often from policy — and still 
oftener from fear — but still, step by step, power in 
Great Britain has bowed to right; prerogative has put 
off its purple, and come down reluctantly from its 
throne, and diffused itself among the people. Earnest 
patriots cannot brook this process. It is too tedious. 
They would have everything at once. But Provi- 
dence is wiser and kinder than they. For the result 
has been, that in England the wheel of reform never 
goes backward. Obliged to contest every inch of 
ground, the people come to understand and to value 
their rights ; and when they get them, they know 
what to do with them. Their progress, though mod- 
erate, is sure. If they are strangers to the ecstasy 
their mercurial neighbors have sometimes felt in cele- 
brating the apotheosis of Liberty, they are no less 
strangers to their despondency and terror, on seeing 
their adored idol trampled to death in a night by a 
mob, or garoited by a military usurper. 

It may not be necessary to fortify the position I am 
maintaining, by further examples, but there are facts 
of a very recent da/te Ijearing on this point, too in- 
structive to be omitted. If these facts prove any- 
thing, it is that the populations of the continent are 
as yet without that training which woidd make our 
t'reedom a blessing to them — that if we could, within 



OF INTERVENTION. 53 

three months, reduplicate our institutions all over 
Europe, in place of the existing monarchies, it would 
require a standing army as large as our aggregate body 
of militia to keejD them a-going for five years. The 
year 1848, the most remarkable and pregnant year in 
the chronicles of the other hemisphere for three centu- 
ries, witnessed a general movement throughout Europe 
towards the establishment of liberal institutions. In 
France, the monarchy was thrown down by a single 
popular outbreak, and a republic reared upon its 
ruins. In Sicily, a constitution was promised, though 
not actually framed, by the most savage tyrant who 
disgraces a throne in Christendom. An insurrection 
in Munich coerced a profligate king to abdicate his 
crown. Another in Berlin extorted from the capri- 
cious and incomprehensible king of Prussia most ex- 
plicit stipulations touching the charter his subjects 
demanded, and which he had violated his oath by 
withholding. The minor German States adopted de- 
cisive measures for reconstructing their long-lost unity 
and nationality. The Austrians were driven out of 
Milan, and a provisional government established in 
Lombardy. Even Vienna was surrendered to the 
people, and a constitution wrung from the reluctant 
and autocratic emperor. While, in Italj^, the phenom- 
enon was presented of a Pope, the professed friend 
of popular rights and an avowed advocate of progress. 
It was here, indeed, this grand movement commenced. 
The way had been preparing under the pontificate of 



54 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

Gregory XVI. The only nation blessed with an in- 
fallible ruler, was ruled so badly that their grievances 
had become intolerable; and it was for Pius IX., on 
his accession to the tiara, to choose between identify- 
ing himself with the mass of his people, and mitigat- 
ing tlieir burdens, or putting himself at the head of 
the Jesuit party, with the certainty of encountering 
a revolution. He decided for the former — not exclu- 
sively, we must believe, from motives of policy, but 
in obedience to the instincts of a heart not a stranger 
to humane and benevolent sentiments. He saw, for 
who in Italy could help seeing, that the people were 
ground down under insufferable oppressions ; and he 
resolved to ameliorate their condition. Addressing 
himself with energy to the Augean task of removing 
abuses, he set about reducing the taxes, abolishing 
arbitrary imprisonments, regulating the administra- 
tion of the finances, and promoting popular education. 
He granted amnesties to political offenders ; an- 
nounced his determination to found a representative 
government ; and invited a congress of influential 
laymen from the different States of the Church to 
assist him in arranging the details of a constitution. 
The Italians were in an ecstasy. The despots of 
Europe in a frenzy. The people everywhere clamor- 
ous in tlieir applause of the new Pontiff, and no-where 
more so than among ourselves. Enormous mass meet- 
ings were held in our cities, at which laudatory ad- 
dresses to Plo Nono were adopted, and Protestants and 



OF INTERVENTION. 55 

Romanists vied with each other in celebrating the 
magnanimity of the "greatest Reformer of the age." 
And what has been the issue of all these auspi- 
cious demonstrations? What the meridian of the 
day which dawned so brightly upon Europe, and gave 
promise of a universal regeneration from the German 
Ocean to the Mediterranean — from the Straits of Dover 
to the Dardanelles ? In the language of the North Bri- 
tish Review, with "scarcely an exception, everything 
has fallen back into its old condition. In nearly 
every state the old demon of despotism has returned, 
bringing with it w^orse devils than itself. Hungary 
and Hesse are crushed; Bavaria has been degraded 
into the brutal tool of a more brutal tyrant; the 
Prussian people are sullen, desponding, and disarmed, 
and the Prussian government sunk into a terrible 
abyss of degradation ; Austria has a new emperor, 
more insolently despotic than any of his predecessors 
for many a long year; and throughout Germany con- 
stitutional liberty has been effectually trampled out. 
In Italy, Venice and Lombardy have been recon- 
quered, and are now experiencing the vw victis; Tus- 
cany is worse because more Austrian than before, 
and alarmed at the peril she has incurred ; the small 
duchies are as bad as ever — they could not be worse ; 
the Pope, terrified out of his benevolence and his pa- 
triotism, having fled from the Vatican in disgrace, has 
been restored by foreign arms, and the old ecclesiastical 
abominations are reinstated in their old supremacy ; 



56 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

while Naples and Sicily are again prostrate at the 
feet of the most imbecile and brutal of the incurable 
race of Bourbons. Two short years have passed 
away since Europe presented to the lover of liberty 
and human progress the most smiling aspect it had 
ever worn : and in this brief space of time, an inex- 
orable destiny has gathered together all the far-reach- 
ing anticipations, all the noble prospects, all the rapid 
conquests, all the rich achievements of that memorable 
era, and covered them over with these two narrow 
words— Zfic jaxiet /" 

Why are these melancholy events cited ? Not, cer- 
tainly, to upbraid the patriots of the old world ; nor to 
abate the indignation against their oppressors, which 
must inflame every generous bosom. But they are 
adduced to refute for the ten thousandth time, the ab- 
surd theories so prevalent in Europe, and so often pro- 
pounded even here, respecting the necessary conditions 
of national freedom. If there are no journals now, 
which carry the heading attached to that of Camille 
Desmoulins : " There is no victim more agreeable to 
the gods than an immolated king," and no orators to 
maintain, that "the rights of the people can be written 
only in the blood of kings," it must not be supposed 
that this creed has become obsolete. It has its devo- 
tees, its shrines, its 'propafjanda, and its purposes ; and 
will have, so long as there are tyrants among j)rinces, 
or anarchists among their subjects. And fjir more 
numerous, more respectable, and more influential than 



OF INTERVENTION. 67 

this band of regicides, is that heterogeneous body of 
patriots, comprising all faiths and languages, who in- 
sist that any nation can provide for itself which has 
the reins put into its own hands. These are the par- 
ties to be instructed, if that were possible, by the retro- 
spect we have just taken, and by the facts drawn from 
our annals and those of England. Without pretend- 
ing to specify the various causes which occasioned the 
disastrous results of the late European struggle, is not 
the incompetency of the revolutionists to turn the 
crisis to any hopeful account, too palpable to admit of 
a question ? Is it not apparent, from the Avliole course 
of events between the banishment of Louis Philippe 
and the restoration of Pius IX., that the masses are 
not yet fitted for complete emancipation ? In Robes- 
pierre's last speech before that Convention whose ap- 
petites he had so whetted with blood that they were 
now thirsting for his own, a speech of which Sir 
Walter Scott says, "it was as menacing as the first 
distant rustle of the hurricane, and dark and lurid as 
the eclipse which announces its approach," he ob- 
served : " Do not let us deceive ourselves : to found an 
immense republic upon the basis of reason and equality, 
to unite in a strong band all the parties of this im- 
mense empire, is not an enterprise which vanity can 
consummate : it is the master-piece of virtue and hu- 
man reason. Every faction grows from the bosom of 
a great revolution — how suppress them, if you do not 
submit all their passions to justice? You have not 



68 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

any other guarantee of liberty than the vigorous ob- 
servance of the principles of the universal morality 
which you have proclaimed. What signifies to us the 
conquest of kings, if we are vanquished by the vices 
which bring forth tyranny !"'^ Unhappily for himself 
and for France, he woke up to the grandeur and dif- 
ficulty of the task his associates and himself had un- 
dertaken, only after the axe was suspended for his 
liead, which had struck down so many of his victims. 
Too late did he discover, that a liberal constitution 
could not be kept alive in an atmosphere feculent with 
vice and drugged with atheism. But it is something 
to be able to cite just and weighty sentiments like 
these, from the lips of the great high-priest of Jacob- 
inism. If the patriots who imagine that a country 
can be made free simply by driving the wheel of revo- 
lution through it, will not hear Robespierre speaking 
as from the scaffold, " neither would they be persuaded 
though one rose from the dead." 

But the argument supplied by our history and in- 
stitutions, is far more comprehensive. The great thing 
we have done for the world, has been, under Provi- 
dence, to establish and maintain a Jicst, ivise, and tcell- 
ordered government — in all essential particulars, a 
"model" of what a government should be. This 
was what Europe needed : not elaborate disquisitions 
on the rights of man ; still less, a tumultuous crusade to 
replace her despotisms with republican charters; but 

* Lamartine's Girondists. 



OF LNTERYENTION-. 59 

the stead}^, successful working, on a sufficiently ex- 
tended scale, of a polity comprising the fundamental 
principles of true civil liberty — a sj^stem embracing 
the alleged incompatible elements of independence 
and stability ; the supremacy of law and popular free- 
dom ; the unfettered exertion of personal aspirations 
in any and all departments of society, with the main- 
tenance of order and the protection of private and 
public rights. In meeting this demand, we have ren- 
dered the old world an invaluable service, even in 
the way of elucidating abstract principles. France, 
Germany, Italy, all may learn here, if they will, why 
we have succeeded, and they have not; and how hope- 
less it is for them to expect to reach our ends, if they 
scoff at our means. This Republic is a standing ref- 
utation of their crude theories about human rights 
and social progress, the spawn of the miserable igno- 
rance and impiety which reign among them. It pours 
contempt on the wretched quackery which, in a thou- 
sand forms, essays to cure their maladies without the 
aid of the Bi^j.e, or any recognition of the God of the 
Bible. It is ^ demonstration which no sagacity can 
subvert and no artifice elude, that " religion is the only 
basis on which the broad development of freedom can 
rest f'^ that the only adequate buttresses of free insti- 
tutions are intelligence and virtue ; and that, to make a 
people virtuous and intelligent, you must give them, 
not treatises on Communism and Pantheism, not infi- 

* Kossuth to the New York Clergy. 



60 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

del commentaries on the Scriptures, not monkish le- 
gends and cathedral pantomimes, but the Gospel of 
Christ. This has made us what we are; and this 
alone can make them what they ought to be. There 
are minds all over Europe beginning to perceive this, 
and to understand that the first step towards assimi- 
lating their institutions to ours, must be to secure for 
themselves an open Bible and a pure faith. Should 
a merciful Providence concede to them these priceless 
gifts, the political regeneration of Europe, with all 
other needful blessings, would soon follow in their 
train. 

In opposition, then, to all the schemes devised or 
to be devised for embroiling us in the disputes of 
the other continent, we maintain that the best thing 
we can do for the world, the only method in which 
we can fulfil the beneficent mission confided to us, is, 
to preserve this Union inviolate. We hold it, let it 
be remembered, not for our own interest or honor 
merely, but as Trustees for mankind. It is ours to 
administer, but not to dispose of; ours to enjoy and to 
transmit, but not ours to destroy. Wb have no more 
right to destroy it, than w^e should have, if such a 
thing were possible, to blot the sun out of the firma- 
ment. For the entire race have a stake in this 
government. " Wherever you go, you find the United 
States held up as an example by the advocates of 
freedom. The mariner no more looks to his compass 
or takes his departure by the sun, than does the lover 



OF INTERVENTION. 6 J 

of liberty abroad shape his course by reference to the 
Constitution of the United States."* 

The recent course of events, in either hemisphere 
has increased both the importance and the difficulty 
of the task thus devolved on us. Fresh causes of 
alienation, now happily repressed for a season, have 
sprung up among ourselves; and the disasters which 
have attended the popular movements abroad, are en- 
larging our domestic burdens and threatening to com- 
plicate our foreign relations. If, in the infancy of this 
country, Europe could regard us with comparative 
indifference, all indifference has vanished before our 
early and vigorous manhood. The name of the 
" United States" is mixed up with the intricate web 
of European Diplomacy ; it gleams out in their state- 
papers; it is a watchword in every popular insurrec- 
tion. Cabinets no longer ignore the question : " What 
course will the Government at Washington adopt ?" 
The friends of liberty in every kingdom appeal to us 
to aid them in their projects, and these appeals are 
certain to be pressed by a large and powerful portion 
of our own population. It will be well if, in these cri- 
tical circumstances, the present generation are content 
to tread in the steps of WASHINGTON; if, instead 
of plunging into the wars of Europe, we display our 
sympathy for liberty there by measures which will in 
the end do far more to promote it. Let us foster the 
growth of liberal principles among those nations, by 

* Mr. Webster. 



62 THE NEW DOCTRINE 

all such diplomatic arrangements as we can adopt 
without compromising our settled policy of non-inter- 
vention. Let our countrymen prosecute the benevo- 
lent work of supplying them with the word of God ; 
for they will never have rational and permanent 
liberty until they get the Bible. Let us educate and 
Christianize the masses they send to us, who not only 
act upon us for good or evil, but re-act with energy upon 
the countries they have left. And let us take care 
OF OUR Union ; for this, in respect to constitutional 
liberty, is the last hope of Europe and of the world. 
A legion of adverse evils is arrayed against it. Igno- 
rance, immorality, ambition, fanaticism, faction, law- 
lessness, sectional animosities, to which, wdth the con- 
dition of the other continent before us, may well 
be added, atheism, and the insidious, grasping spirit 
of the Papal Hierarchy — all are hostile to the Union, 
and must be met and vanquished if we would pre- 
serve it. With God's help, they can be vanquished. 
We have intelligence, talent, piety, and patriotism 
enough left to do this or anything else which may 
require to be done for the sake of our beloved country. 
Let all who really love the country, and desire to see 
the Union transmitted in its glorious integrity to our 
children, discharge their duty. Let the people be edu- 
cated ; the Bible lodged in every house ; the Gospel 
everywhere preached; the Sabbath and its ordinances 
honored ; wise and upright men selected as our rulers; 
the laws Aiith fully executed; God's universal provi- 



OF INTERVENTION. 63 

deuce acknowledged, and his protection continually 
invoked throughout our borders — and we may confi- 
dently expect the perpetuity of our institutions. We 
may look forward without presumption to a future as 
brilliant as our past career has been illustrious. We 
shall consummate with honor the sublime mission con- 
fided to us for mankind, and achieve a yet more 
signal fulfilment of the prophecy, "All nations 

SHALL CALL YOU BLESSED !" 



THE END, 



X 



H32 75 3^1 












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